Outdoor living

With spring and summer approaching and the temperature rising, now is the perfect time to extend your liveable space at home by creating an inviting green outdoor oasis.

- JESSICA BELLEF

The Australian cultural identity is wrapped up in visions of barbecues, backyards, beaches and the bush. We are a sunburnt country of open spaces and sweeping plains. Living the Australian dream during the 1980s and '70s meant owning a house surrounded by a green yard where you could throw another shrimp on the barbie and bowl a few overs of cricket. This focus shifted in the 1990s as home sizes and workloads increased and our connection to the outdoors diminished. Flash forward to today, where estate homes are built roof to roof and prohibitive housing prices have squashed many homeowning aspirations. In February this year, The Guardian reported an increasing number of young Australians are giving up on owning a house with a backyard as market prices soar beyond their means.

Our gardens may be shrinking, but in this fractured time of global crisis and heightened anxiety a connection to nature has never been more vital. If you are lucky enough to have access to a backyard, courtyard or balcony, filling it with greenery and treating it with the same decorative care you do for your interiors can pay dividends for your mental and physical health. The benefits of gardening and spending time outside have long been reported. All signs point to the fact that exposure to green spaces can reduce the risks of high blood pressure, type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Even the tiniest plot can act as a balm to daily stresses.